The Pitt‘s Supriya Ganesh is breaking down her character Samira’s shocking onscreen health scare.
During the Thursday, March 12, episode of the HBO Max series, Samira’s stress about issues outside of work caused her to have what she thought was a heart attack. Ultimately, Samira and her coworkers realized she suffered an anxiety attack.
“It was something that I didn’t know was going to happen,” Ganesh, 28, exclusively told Us Weekly. “I found out in episode 9 that it was something that was going to happen. It was scary because I’ve had experiences with it as well.”
Ganesh was “excited” to explore a topic she was familiar with, adding, “To almost have imposter syndrome about my anxiety and going through, ‘Do I even experience this thing?’ It was weird. I kind of dug in and was excited to have this character feel this way — in such a big way.”
She continued: “Samira is very empathetic and she’s really professional about her empathy. I think she tries to keep things very by the book — going above and beyond. But to have her have this almost explosive moment was really freeing in this really cool way.”
Ganesh noted that filming such a visceral moment can feel “really real” at times.
“I don’t remember what I did [after]. I think I went home and slept. It’s actually quite exhausting,” she admitted. “I did a lot of that in the span of a day. It’s sometimes a weird thing where you’re bringing in an energy because you’re making your body do certain [things]. I was breathing a lot — really fast — and that’s not good for your body. It was definitely a challenge in a lot of ways, but it was good.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Samira had a tense moment with Robby (Noah Wyle) when he told her to go home following her panic attack. They ultimately talked it out, but the scene touched on a consistent pattern of how Robby treats the resident.
“Robbie is a character that’s very hot and cold with Samira a lot. There’s a push and pull quite often with them,” Ganesh weighed in. “So I don’t think she’s surprised, but I don’t think she’s realized how much of it is projection — and how much of it is an internal thing — until later in the season.”
She added: “He says something that makes her go, ‘That’s such an insane thing to say.’ I think that’s the moment where it clicks for her that he’s just been taking something else that has nothing to do with her out on her. It’s definitely something she’s not surprised by, but I think she’s surprised by how it suddenly makes sense to her by the end of the day.”
New episodes of The Pitt premiere on HBO Max Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
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